Herman Badillo, former chairman of the City University of New York, flunked Fernando Ferrer yesterday as a phony education reformer who supported the status quo for 20 years.

“Freddy was a council member and president of The Bronx . . . Not only did he not oppose social promotion, but he never pushed for mayoral control of the schools,” said Badillo, co-chairman of Mayor Bloomberg’s re-election campaign.

He also said Ferrer never complained about the high-school graduation and dropout rates during his tenure.

The Ferrer campaign released its first education ad yesterday, blasting the “50 percent dropout rate” and saying in the 30-second spot that “it’s one of the things I’d like to change . . . about the city I love.”

While Bloomberg has said the graduation rate has risen 3.5 percentage points – to 54.3 percent – with him in office, the dropout rate still equals 32 percent when students are tracked until age 21, according to the Department of Education.

Badillo, also a former Bronx borough president, said that he had worked with Mayors Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani, as well as Bloomberg, to reform both the city’s public-school system and CUNY but that Ferrer had been “missing in action” during those efforts.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Working Families Party planned to discuss today whether to endorse either candidate. A party insider said there was “momentum” to give Ferrer the nod.

“It looks pretty good,” said the source, adding that the Democrat was “within striking distance” of the votes needed.

Ferrer would need 66 percent of the 114 votes from the party’s city chapter, which includes representatives from a number of unions.